SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



that by the close of the thirteenth century these 'bondmen' had banded 

 together to commute their services for money, and so purchased their 

 immunity from the interference of the lord's bailiff.'^*" 



The thirteenth century was the golden age of the English peasantry. 

 Never before or since have they been in such a position of advantage with 

 regard to the land, and the peasant was not slow to take advantage of his 

 position. Some of these nativi are said to have amassed wealth.^'' That they 

 were frequently highly prosperous is evident, if we consider the accounts of 

 the natives on the manor of Manchester, such, for example, as Henry the 

 reeve, villein and yet nativus of Gorton. This man rented a messuage and an 

 oxgang of land there, paying 8j. ^d. a year for it, and rendering the services 

 required from him by his lord. But he was paid for his services, receiving as 

 follows : — When he ploughed for the lord with his own plough, he was 

 entitled to one meal and 2d. a day ; for a day's harrowing he had his meal 

 and a wage of id. ; or for half a day, no food but the same wages. He was 

 further to reap for the lord at id. z day plus his victuals, and to carry in 

 autumn, lending his own cart as he had previously lent his plough, at a charge 

 of 2d. a day and one meal of the lord's victuals. He also, with the other 

 nativi and others who owed suit to the lord's mill there, was to obtain and 

 convey millstones from the quarry at a charge of j\.d. for packing and 3J. for 

 carriage of the same.^'* 



There were five other prosperous nativi of Gorton who were holders of 

 land, and who paid similar rents and services ' as the aforesaid Henry.' 

 Similarly the nativus of Ardwick, who held two messuages and 2 oxgangs of 

 land there of the lord, and the three nativi of Crumpsall who rented land and 

 messuages were required to render services according to the same scale and 

 fashion. And in all cases at their deaths the lord claimed a third part of their 

 chattels, or if they left no son the lord took no less than half,'*' 



Now, husbandmen of this thriving class, who owned their own ploughs 

 and teams of oxen, their own wagons and horses, who cultivated at least 

 24 acres apiece, and who held, as Henry did, the important and responsible 

 position of farm-bailifF, could scarcely be regarded as so depressed by their 

 abject condition of servitude as not to strive and improve their social status by 

 bargaining for their freedom with the lord. Probably from this period arose 

 the class of small independent farmers who were the forefathers of the famous 

 Tudor yeomanry. It was precisely from this class of semi-free customary 

 tenants that Mr. Leadam derives the origin of those whom Coke styled ' the 

 inferior copyholders.'^'* On the manor of Manchester they are classed 

 together.^'^ 



Another class of tenantry, of semi-servile origin, were the tenants at will. 

 These rented from the lord parcels of land and waste belonging to the 



isto Qj. possibly the lord preferred to take a fixed money rent in lieu of the works. 



"' Leadam, 'Inq. of 1^17' Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), (1892), vi, 251. 



'" Mamecestre (Chet. Soc), ii, 279-80, also Lanes. Inq. (Rec. Soc. liv), 310, 311, 312. 



"^ Mamecestre, ii, 313, 314 ; Lanes. Inq. (Rec. Soc. liv), 51. 



'" 'Inq. of 1 5 17,' Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (ISTew Ser.), vi, 198. Also ibid. 210 ; 'Coke . . . notices that 

 in the Year Books " copyholders " are so called [i.e. customary tenants] in i Hen. V (141 3) ; in 42 Edw. Ill 

 c. 25 (1368), they are spoken of as "custuraarii tenentes." In a case heard in 1224 they appear as "consuetu- 

 dinarii" ; Bracton's 'Note Book, iii, case 995. Again in 1 22 1 a defendant is described as " villanus et consuetu- 

 dinarius" ; Selden Soc. i, case 188.' 



'" Mamecestre, ii, 281 and 314-15. 



279 



